Choosing English as working language ensured SG survival
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Originally posted by QX179R:
Mr Lee said that it is the responsibility of every teacher who teaches subjects in English. They must use good English when they question, speak and write in the classroom and they are the best role models for children, if the young are to be effective communicators.
This sickening obsession of english by this cultureless anglophile.
The babas, on the other hand, also known as Straits Chinese, were Chinese more in name than practice. They were the descendants of the very early Chinese immigrants (Hokkiens from the Fujian province) to the straits settlements of Malaya (Penang, Singapore and Malacca). They assimilated with both the local Malays and the colonising British, whom they especially admired. The babas developed their own culture, cuisine and language - Malay liberally sprinkled with Hokkien.
The sinkeh were the traders, the coolies and the shophouse owners. The babas became the lawyers, the civil servants and the politicians; they attended the local English-language schools run in the tradition of the UK's public schools, and Oxford and Cambridge. If the sinkeh received an overseas education at all, it was in Nanking or another university in China.
Although the sinkeh dominated Singapore's population, it was the babas who dominated public decision-making. In effect, a baba minority captured sinkeh Singapore, and that minority's attitudes were more those of Victorian England than China.
It was the babas who were the framers of Singapore's rules and institutions. Many of Singapore's most prominent Chinese have had baba backgrounds.
Lee Kuan Yew, who became prime minister of Singapore aged just 35, is the most obvious example. He claims a Hakka heritage, although his upbringing was that of a baba: at home, he spoke English with his parents and baba Malay to his grandparents.
"Mandarin was totally alien to me and unconnected with my life," Lee said of his childhood.
For Lee, Chineseness was an acquired skill and later a political necessity. He was not brought up as a Chinese with a focus on China, but as a baba who looked to England. He followed the conventional career path of a baba and went to London to study law.
And so Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore became Harry Lee of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. His father had given him and two of his brothers English, as well as Chinese, names.
Did Lee run Singapore as a piece of Asia mired in Chinese ways?
No. He ran it in a manner to which a British colonial administrator would have aspired.
That other great framer of Singapore's institutions, Goh Keng Swee, who rose to become finance minister and deputy prime minister, is the epitome of the baba elite. Goh was born in 1918 in Malacca, the epicentre of baba culture, into a baba family. His parents were English-oriented Chinese Methodists.
The baba influence is now more subtle, but still there. Singapore's current prime minister Lee Hsien Loong has the strongest baba pedigree of any of the country's leaders.
http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/648273/
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Babas And Nyonyas
German scholar JURGEN RUDOLPHhas produced the latest, and possibly most
comprehensive, social history of the Babas in Singapore. We publish an
extract here on his account of the two key turning-points of their recent
past
THE Japanese Occupation was a crucial turning-point for the Babas. This is
already obvious in an analysis of the terminology.
After World War II, the previously respectable designations such as "Baba"
and "Peranakan" became almost terms of abuse if used by the "non-Baba
Chinese".
The non-Baba Chinese gave the Babas condescending names, which implied that
they were not "complete Chinese" because of their (supposed) inability to
speak "Chinese", their alleged adoption of "foreign" (i.e. non-Chinese)
cultures and their British orientation.
The Japanese Occupation turned the Peranakan world upside-down by
triggering important changes in the political role of the Babas as well as
in their cultural identity.
Many Babas fell victim because they were among the groups targeted during
the Japanese sook ching operation. Hastily arranged "intermarriages"
between Nyonyas and non-Baba Chinese were to lead to radical changes in the
Baba way of life and to "sinicisation". The British patronage of the Babas
was interrupted in 1942 and was never again fully restored.
The decline of Baba culture is usually thought to begin with the Japanese
Occupation. The Babas lost fortunes and much of their "material culture"
during this time. Much of the previous Nyonya and Baba material culture
disappeared or deteriorated in the '40s and '50s.
In addition, many ceremonies which were too time-consuming and expensive in
the new "environment" had to be abandoned or at least simplified.
The Japanese Occupation also forced many Nyonyas into the labour force,
with the result that these true bearers of Baba culture became less
domestic-bound. Other factors in the decline included conversions to
Christianity (which usually conflict with ancestral rites), the dispersion
of demographic concentrations and the trend from extended family units to
nuclear ones.
In an interview, Tan Kong Wee told me that he and other Babas realised
their "Chineseness" during the Japanese Occupation:
"The Japanese did not discriminate between the Peranakan and the
China-Chinese. I remember my fellow Peranakans were shocked because they
suddenly realised that there was one thing missing. They did not know their
roots.
"They could not speak Chinese. They said: 'The Japanese called me a
Chinese. But all along, I would say I'm not a Chinese. I was 11 years
old... it dawned upon me that I am a Chinese. For this, I have to thank the
Japanese.' "
Although Tan's realisation may not have been shared by many Babas (the
Japanese, in fact, distinguished between the Straits Chinese and the
China-born Chinese, at least for the collection of the $50 million "gift"
extorted by the Japanese), it is a fact that the Chinese-speaking Chinese
were becoming more influential and insulted the Babas mainly because of
their inability to speak "Chinese". Consequently, many Babas made an effort
to learn "Chinese".
Whereas many English-educated Babas re-emphasised their
allegiance to the British Empire and were afraid that full independence
might harm their still privileged position, the vast majority of
Chinese-educated Chinese were vehemently anti-colonial and
anti-imperialist.
A HIGHER CLASS OF CHINESE
AS "sons of the soil", the Straits Chinese British Association's Straits
Chinese defended their citizenship (or subjecthood) rights against the
China-born Chinese and those first-generation Singapore-born Chinese who
had a dual loyalty.
The chasm between the Babas and the sinkehs (literally "guests", or recent
immigrants from China) may also be illustrated by the typical occupations
of the China-born Chinese which self-conscious Babas would have shunned.
As S.C. Wong wrote, in a letter to The Straits Times in 1948: "Our
China-born brethren are very useful in Singapore. Without them, we must
look to automatic machinery, for few Straits-born Chinese care to take up
the following trades: tailor, shoe-maker, launderer, barber, farmer,
butcher, fisherman, grocer, market stallholder, carpenter, bricklayer,
painter, machine-shop artisan, boiler-maker, blacksmith, lumberjack,
sawmill worker, stevedore, lighterman, lorry-driver, taxi-driver, omnibus
driver and conductor, mining coolie, tapper, and the indispensable
night-soil coolie."
Despite some signs of "resinicisation", many Babas tended to reciprocate
the insults and teasing of the non-Baba Chinese by calling them "country
bumpkins" and low-class guests.
With the increased ambiguity of the status of the Babas, many of them
neither dared to admit they were Babas nor spoke Baba Malay in public. The
days of Baba Malay as an inter-group language of commercial value were also
gone, and Baba Malay stagnated and became confined to the domestic domain.
The once flourishing literary activities in Baba Malay came to a grinding
halt and wayang peranakan and dondang sayang were in crisis. Thus, the most
important "Malay" aspect of the previous Baba identity was indeed in
decline.
On a political level, the good relations between the Babas and the Malays
also deteriorated somewhat when, during the pre-independence struggle for
Merdeka, the Malays were infuriated by secessionist Babas. To the Malays,
those Babas were "puppets" or even "pariahs" of the British Queen.
In contrast, the British, using eulogistic terms for the Babas, referred to
their loyalty to Singapore and their pioneer status.
During the twilight years of British rule here, between 1945 and 1959, the
SCBA appeared to continue with its successful tradition of providing
leadership. In its midst were not only city councillors, executive and
legislative councillors, but also the presidents of the then leading
political parties.
The British openly viewed the "King's" or "Queen's Chinese" of the SCBA as
the "natural leaders" of the Chinese of Singapore.
THE SECOND TURNING-POINT
HOWEVER, there were early warning signs of the Babas' loss of influence.
Eventually, with the waning British influence, the failure of the
secessionists, the death of conservative "Baba politics" and the rapid rise
of the People's Action Party which led to self-rule in 1959, the Babas
reached the second crucial turning-point in their social history. This
usually ignored turning-point was marked by self-rule and the takeover by
the PAP. Although leading members of the PAP, such as Lee Kuan Yew, Dr Toh
Chin Chye and Dr Goh Keng Swee, were publicly described as English-educated
Babas, the Babas as a group were openly belittled as "deculturalised".
As a result, the Babas' influence as a group further declined in every
respect. Many Babas were in a state of shock and attempted to behave less
conspicuously in the immediate post-1959 period.
With the British no longer holding the reins of power, and the PAP's
victory, the SCBA and its successor organisations, the Singapore Chinese
Peranakan Association and the Peranakan Association, became politically
impotent.
While the aims of the SCBA had been to serve Straits Chinese interests
politically in the context of British colonialism, the PA officially
emphasised values such as inter-racial and inter-cultural harmony,
religious tolerance and a common national identity.
Unofficially, though, the PA turned apolitical and revived its somewhat
dormant tendency to preserve the Babas' cultural heritage, a tendency which
became more marked with the so-called "revival of Baba culture".
The post-1959 period highlighted the relative unimportance of the Babas as
a politically, legally and economically defined group. The Babas, who were
formerly a rather heterogeneous group were affected by political interests
and an emphasis on a particular "Chineseness", and soon lost their
rationale for existence.
With the disappearance of this rationale and the heavy stress placed on the
political correctness of a "Chineseness" other than that of the Babas, we
not only observe radical changes in Baba culture but also an
ever-increasing number of intermarriages between Baba and non-Baba Chinese.
Marital unions between non-Baba Chinese and Babas had been facilitated
earlier by the Japanese Occupation and the anglicisation of Singapore
society. Baba cultural traditions or values no longer tended to be
transmitted to the children of these unions.
Other important factors which led to radical changes in Baba culture were
the erosion of demographic concentration and the subsequent disruption of
interactive networks, the advent of modern communications and the
simultaneous processes of "sinicisation" and "Singaporeanisation".
As a result, former courtship and marriage practices as well as other
customs and traditions such as ancestral and funeral rites were largely
abandoned. From the end of World War II, many Babas abandoned Chinese
religion and a syncretic system of beliefs, and embraced Christianity,
particularly Catholicism.
Moreover, Baba Malay and dondang sayang standards deteriorated, the sarong
kebaya was less seen in public and the art of Nyonya cuisine was at least
simplified, if not abandoned.
BEADED SLIPPERS MAKE A COMEBACK
THIS is not to deny the possibility of unexpected comebacks, such as the
current renewed interest in beaded -- and even beading! -- slippers in
Singapore or the recent revival of dondang sayang in Malacca, according to
William Gwee, an expert on Baba culture.
Baba Malay as a lingua franca had been on the decline from the '20s
onwards, and after Merdeka, English became the most important lingua
franca.
In addition, a gradual and incomplete switch in mother tongue from Baba
Malay to English occurred among the Singapore Babas.
Although the level of Baba Malay tended to be still high among the older
generation, it was deteriorating among, and not transmitted to, the younger
generation. The younger Babas, in particular, showed little interest in
Baba culture and were often reluctant to conceive of, or at least to openly
identify, themselves as Babas or Nyonyas. Occasionally, there was an
outright rejection of one's "Babaness", as in this view of one Baba who
declined to be named:
"My brother thinks the Baba culture is chaotic... it is completely out of
touch. You are a Chinese living in a community of Chinese, so how to
survive?
"My grandmother, grand-aunties, according to my brother, are such misfits.
My brother hates it with a passion. When he makes fun of the Peranakans, he
will always speak in a fake Malay accent saying, 'I not Malay, I Chinese.'
He finds that most humiliating, hard to break away from a 'non-culture'."
The same informant told me about a middle-aged Nyonya and the perceived
impracticality of the way of life of the older generation:
"One of my aunts purposely denies her 'Peranakanness'. To the Peranakans,
[it is] 'just enjoy', happy-go-lucky, almost ostentatious, leaving things
in the hands of God. To this auntie, materialism is more virtuous,
frugality, more to take charge of the future and welfare of your family,
investments. This is conceived of as more 'Chinese'.
"Auntie said, 'I'm glad that I married a Chinese. Mother is impractically
meticulous. [She] wants to go to church every day.' She curses her mother
right in front of her. 'My mother is good for nothing. She doesn't seem
able to cope, and she considers work a burden.' "
Generally, the younger generation became less and less distinguishable from
non-Baba Chinese.
In 1984, the then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew remarked: "In the generation
that is under 40 years, the differences between the Chinese-educated and
the English-educated have been blended and blurred by interaction in
integrated schools, the schools that first started to teach Chinese-stream
and English-stream students in the same school.
"Then there were many integrated families where some children went to
English-stream and others went to Chinese-stream schools. So the cultural
differences have almost disappeared."
The most important move towards a single Chinese identity among the Chinese
Singaporeans was the Government's equation of Mandarin with the Chinese
language. In 1981, a new educational policy for ethnically Chinese pupils
was put into effect, which makes the learning of Mandarin as their "mother
tongue" compulsory.
ADOPTING AN ALIEN 'MOTHER TONGUE'
FOR the Babas, the significance of the new policy was that they no longer
had the option to elect Malay as a second school language, but were obliged
to study Mandarin, a language which many of them regarded as rather alien.
A good number of Babas were in disagreement with the notion of Mandarin
being the "mother tongue" of the Babas and other Chinese Singaporeans, and
the equation of Chinese ethnicity with the ability to speak Mandarin was
contested.
They also felt strongly that their culture was no less Chinese than that of
other Chinese Singaporeans. However, by force of circumstances, the Babas
have accepted the heavy emphasis placed on Mandarin and have done what the
Babas have always been particularly good at: They have adapted to the
situation.
With the younger Babas becoming less and less distinguishable from non-Baba
Chinese, the former's need to separate themselves from the Malays was no
longer a problem.
Significantly, it was in Malaysia rather than in Singapore that the Babas
were seen as in a "unique position" to bridge the gap between the Malays
and Chinese.
In Singapore, only the traditional Baba wedding was perceived by observers
such as Seow Peck Leng of the Young Women's Christian Association in 1968
as a "concrete proof that the spirit of co-operation, tolerance and
compromise did exist between the early Chinese immigrants and the early
Malay residents of Singapore".
Although the British as colonial masters were history, a leaning towards
British traits could be observed among some younger Babas.
For instance, Dick Lee (an internationally acclaimed Singaporean pop star),
in a newspaper interview in 1993, said he had suffered an identity crisis
for all of his life. "My [Nyonya] grandmother was very British. She drank
tea at four and read Jane Austen. I thought I was a character in an Enid
Blyton novel."
He only realised he was not English when he visited England at age 14.
In my description of the social and cultural history of the Babas, I have
refused to apply a modern, culturally-based definition of the Babas.
While the public focus until the electoral victory of the PAP was clearly
on Baba politics, there began -- after a decade of silence and the
Peranakan Association's intermittent attempts to restore some political
weight -- a public emphasis on Baba culture.
Ironically, this switch of emphasis occurred at a time when aspects of Baba
cultures not only began to disappear or be diluted, but they were also
commercialised and used to promote tourism.
The new cultural definition, which necessitated a deviation from the
equation of "Baba" with "Straits Chinese", is thus, in historical terms,
rather recent.
This assessment is not contradicted by the justifiable assumption that the
synonymous usage of the terms Straits Chinese, Peranakan and Baba in
written records was trailing behind the rapidly changing social reality of
Singapore and was becoming increasingly ambiguous.
In my interpretation, the Babas' newly-published distinctions between
"Straits Chinese" and "Babas" along cultural lines have to be taken
seriously when accounting for the time of their appearance and the more
recent past, but not further back (namely, the period preceding the
Japanese Occupation).
According to the new cultural definition, a Baba should also be a Hokkien.
According to some purist Hokkien Babas, who regard themselves as true-blue
Baba jati, non-Hokkien Babas are only Baba chelup.
The expression suggests that the Baba chelup are only superficially dipped
in the paint of Babaness and are at best "nominal" Babas. Apart from the
conceptual history until the late '50s which contradicts such a narrow
conception of a Baba, we have a few examples of prominent non-Hokkien
Babas.
First and foremost, there is Hakka Baba Lee Kuan Yew (who regards himself
as a Baba only technically). Others are the Melaka dondang sayang singer
and serunee player Yeo Kim Swee, who is a Hainanese Baba, and Ambassador to
Germany Walter Woon, who is a Cantonese Baba.
With the new public focus on Baba culture between the late '60s and '70s
onwards, many Babas conceived of their culture as dying.
Unlike these prophets of doom, less fatalistic Babas acknowledged the
decline, but were more optimistic, contending that Babas should become more
conscious about, and more action-orientated towards, their cultural
heritage.
Signs of a so-called revival of Baba culture were many: mock traditional
Baba wedding ceremonies, television documentaries, Nyonya fashion contests,
the commercialisation of so-called Nyonya food, Peranakan festivals, the
Baba "material cultures" turning antiques and museum exhibits, the
preservation of the so-called Peranakan architecture, books, popular
magazine and newspaper articles, the revival of plays in Baba Malay, annual
Baba Conventions and so on.
In addition, efforts were made to promote cultural tourism via the "exotic"
and glorious aspects of the "unique" Baba culture.
However, it soon became clear that the "revival of Baba culture" was
nothing more than just a nostalgic curiosity item, an exotic tourist
attraction and a museum showpiece. These developments notwithstanding,
there is a minority of Babas who still follow what they perceive as the
"essence" of Baba culture and who attempt to transmit this "essence" to the
younger generation.
The writer, a German, is a senior researcher with the Friedrich Naumann
Foundation here. Reconstructing Identities: A Social History Of The Babas
In Singapore (Ashgate/507 pages/$108) is based on his thesis for his PhD
from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. Field work was done
here between May 1992 and October 1994.
- extracted from Sunday Times (3/1/1999)
http://www.asiawind.com/pub/forum/fhakka/mhonarc/msg01319.html
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Proficient in English is indeed an advantage.
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Originally posted by Punggol meegoreng:
Proficient in English is indeed an advantage.
we paid a big price for this advantage.
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I agreed with MM that being English as our 1st language that makes Spore move far far ahead compare to our neighbours. Yes, we make a right choice.
Imagine if our 1st langauge is not English but others, we will be in lagging behind from the rest of the world.
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for those who disagree.....so which other language would be your choice then?
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Look around us in Spore, everything commmunicate in English.
Even foreign investors communicate in English.
Even China also learn to communicate in English.
Even India also speak English.
Even Malaysia also tried to speak English.
For they already know that their language will not bring them far or bring them success.
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Originally posted by Loor:
for those who disagree.....so which other language would be your choice then?
using english as the main language is ok. but we have to keep our chinese and dialects too. thats how we keep our identity.
but look around you. singaporean chinese are not like chinese anymore.
the malays and indians in singapore get the same education as chinese do. but do you any malay or indians who hate their own language and cant speak them? sadly it happens only to chinese.
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It is good that spore have 2nd languages but the 1st language must be English.
Shouldnt other neighbouring countries practices that?
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Originally posted by likeyou:
It is good that spore have 2nd languages but the 1st language must be English.
Shouldnt other neighbouring countries practices that?
Maybe Malaysia or Indonesia can switch to english as dominant language.
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"Political and economic realities led us to choose English as our working language.
75 per cent of the population then was Chinese, speaking a range of dialects; 14 per cent Malays; and eight per cent Indians.
Making Chinese the official language of Singapore was out of the question as the 25 per cent who were non-Chinese would revolt."
Here are the population figures of Singapore in 1957 classified according to race:
1957:
Chinese - 1,090,596
Malay - 197,059
Indian - 129,510
Others - 28,764
Total - 1, 445, 929
If we combine the minorities population together, we would have the following:
chinese - 1,090,596
Minorities - 355,333
http://books.google.com.sg/books?id
So, we have a population of roughly 1.09 mil chinese and 355,000 minorities.
Harry Lee's "thinking" is that mandarin cannot be used as the working language. We have to find another language that very few actually understood as working language.
To "protect" the 355,000, the 1.09 mil must be "sacrificed".
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75% of population but yet mandarin cannot be used. Then how many percentage is needed?
Did malays form 75% of population in Malaysia in 1950s?
This is just political propaganda by Harry Lee to serve his own narrow interests. Coming up with one pretext after another to block mandarin from prevailing and pushing for his own mother tongue, english to be the dominant language.
This type of political spin and propaganda should be exposed for what it is.
He continues to hoodwink people with his political garbage.
To save 25%, we must finish off the 75%? Don't talk cock Lee Kuan Yew.
And it just happens that he could only understand english and couldn't understand mandarin? And his strongest opponents were weak in english and strong in mandarin?
Lee Kuan Yew, who became prime minister of Singapore aged just 35, is the most obvious example. He claims a Hakka heritage, although his upbringing was that of a baba: at home,
he spoke English with his parents and baba Malay to his grandparents.
"Political and economic realities led us to choose English as our working language.
"Mandarin was totally alien to me and unconnected with my life," Lee said of his childhood.
Making Chinese the official language of Singapore was out of the question as the 25 per cent who were non-Chinese would revolt."
You can sell your snake oil elsewhere, Lee Kuan Yew.
Don't sell it in front of me. I will give you two tight slaps across your F****** face.
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Originally posted by Dalforce 25:
75% of population but yet mandarin cannot be used. Then how many percentage is needed?
Did malays form 75% of population in Malaysia in 1950s?
This is just political propaganda by Harry Lee to serve his own narrow interests. Coming up with one pretext after another to block mandarin from prevailing and pushing for his own mother tongue, english to be the dominant language.
This type of political spin and propaganda should be exposed for what it is.
He continues to hoodwink people with his political garbage.
To save 25%, we must finish off the 75%? Don't talk cock Lee Kuan Yew.
And it just happens that he could only understand english and couldn't understand mandarin? And his strongest opponents were weak in english and strong in mandarin?
Lee Kuan Yew, who became prime minister of Singapore aged just 35, is the most obvious example. He claims a Hakka heritage, although his upbringing was that of a baba: at home,
he spoke English with his parents and baba Malay to his grandparents.
"Mandarin was totally alien to me and unconnected with my life," Lee said of his childhood.
You can sell your snake oil elsewhere, Lee Kuan Yew.
Don't sell it in front of me. I will give you two tight slaps across your F****** face.
I'm no devotee to any party or political figure, but i think his choice was a good one.
I see the choice to select english was a neutral-choice rather than one that 'saved the 25% by wiping out the 75%'. If he wanted to 'wipe out the 75%', the choice would have been malay, tamil or whatever else.
Some of the info. provided is interesting and although there may have been some decisions made based on 'other' influencing factors, you'll get that with anyone else who would have been in a position like he was.
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Originally posted by Loor:
I'm no devotee to any party or political figure, but i think his choice was a good one.
I see the choice to select english was a neutral-choice rather than one that 'saved the 25% by wiping out the 75%'. If he wanted to 'wipe out the 75%', the choice would have been malay, tamil or whatever else.
Some of the info. provided is interesting and although there may have been some decisions made based on 'other' influencing factors, you'll get that with anyone else who would have been in a position like he was.
SINGAPORE is a "freak", because it is lacking in terms of geopolitics, economics, size, population and culture, said former communist leader Fang Chuang Pi, dubbed the "Plen" by Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
He added that, in his assessment, the country had "narrow room for manoeuvre in various areas and will run into difficulties in future".
He gave this assessment of Singapore as an unnatural country, a freak of history, in an interview with Malaysia's Chinese-language newspaper, Nanyang Siang Pau, in which he disclosed that he had discussed the Republic's prospects with the Senior Minister when they met in Beijing in August 1995.
He told Mr Lee: "I said that Singapore was a 'freak', but a 'freak' was often a genius, and most geniuses died young. For in terms of geopolitics, economics, size and population, Singapore is congenitally deficient."
The two men also discussed the issue of culture, he added.
"I said that using a certain language to create a culture, the culture created can at best be a commercial culture, or technology culture, or we may call it pasar culture. It has no roots, and identifies itself with a certain material interest. It is the product of expediency.
"It is like duckweed, floating at the harbour. When it absorbs fertilisers, it will flourish very quickly. But once it rains and floods set in, it will perish," he said in an interview conducted in a restaurant in Haadyai, near the Thai-Malaysian border.http://ourstory.asia1.com.sg/independence/
"I said that using a certain language to create a culture, the culture created can at best be a commercial culture, or technology culture, or we may call it pasar culture. It has no roots, and identifies itself with a certain material interest. It is the product of expediency.
"It is like duckweed, floating at the harbour. When it absorbs fertilisers, it will flourish very quickly. But once it rains and floods set in, it will perish,"Singapore's brain drain
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He told Mr Lee: "I said that Singapore was a 'freak', but a 'freak' was often a genius, and most geniuses died young. For in terms of geopolitics, economics, size and population, Singapore is congenitally deficient."
The two men also discussed the issue of culture, he added.But he has no culture.
Debate culture with someone with no culture is not going to be fruitful.
Perhaps only a cultureless person like Lee Kuan Yew can be so bent on imposing alien languages upon local communities at the expense of that local culture.
Someone with no culture like Lee Kuan Yew can never understand the pride that people have for their own culture.
Only people with a culture will be able to understand. Lee Kuan Yew, that is something you can never understand.
Lee Kuan Yew, Lee Kuan Yew, what the hell are you?
Are you an englishman with angmoh name like Harry? But your skin is yellow, not white.
Are you a chinese? But you know nothing about chinese culture.
Are you a peranakan? But you reject that, saying that you are chinese.
Lee Kuan Yew, Lee Kuan Yew, just what the hell are you?
You got me so confused.
I think you are a fruit.
Skin outside is yellow; inside the meat is white. -
For those who say that mandarin should be used, remember that most Chinese do not even speak Mandarin, but other dialects.
Anyway, in Sri Lanka, Sinhalese was used as the majority spoke it and we all know what happned.
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Originally posted by Dalforce 25:
...
Someone with no culture like Lee Kuan Yew can never understand the pride that people have for their own culture.
...
Mandarin, then now American English, what next.
No wonder Singapore is becoming so bastardise.
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Originally posted by mancha:
No wonder Singapore is becoming so bastardise.
That's because the ruler of Singapore is a banana with no culture.
If Singapore was ruled by some local dialect chinese, would it be a bastardised country today?
The guy ruling Singapore is a banana, that is the reason why.
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"...he said that had the nation not chosen English as a working language, it would have been left behind."
agree or not?
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Originally posted by Siliconchip:
Anyway, in Sri Lanka, Sinhalese was used as the majority spoke it and we all know what happned.
I think that is due to suppression and oppression of the tamils there. Are you saying the chinese is going to go around suppressing and oppressing the minorities?
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Originally posted by Loor:
"...he said that had the nation not chosen English as a working language, it would have been left behind."
agree or not?
This type of anglophile rubbish by a cultureless banana how on earth to go and agree?
The top economies in this world, how many use english as dominant language?
It's like some sort of racist shit, only english can save us, all other languages are worthless.
This banana, his mother tongue english he will keep on promote, keep on push, keep on praise, the other languages, like dialects, he will want it to end in Singapore.
So sickening, this cultureless banana.
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Originally posted by Dalforce 25:
Maybe Malaysia or Indonesia can switch to english as dominant language.
Difficult as they are muslim countries and they are faithful and prefer Malay as their 1st language. That is why if we compare with them, we are alot more better than them. -
Originally posted by Dalforce 25:
I think that is due to suppression and oppression of the tamils there. Are you saying the chinese is going to go around suppressing and oppressing the minorities?
No, but that is what would have happened if Mandarin had been the working language instead of English.
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Originally posted by Siliconchip:
No, but that is what would have happened if Mandarin had been the working language instead of English.
Why? No one's mother tongue will be suppressed. English will be reduced to secondary language and mandarin as dominant.
Malaysia is malay dominant, english secondary.
If I were a malaysian citizen, I would support malay as the dominant language. I would oppose any alien language such as english to be the dominant language.
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Making Chinese the official language of Singapore was out of the question as the 25 per cent who were non-Chinese would revolt."
25% will revolt?
As long as you don't go and restrict, go and suppress or disrespect other's people language, why should anyone go and revolt?
Lee Kuan Yew's statement saying that 25% will revolt is based on what evidence?
Was there an opinion poll for that policy?
In colonial Singapore, the nearest thing to a common language had been Bazaar Malay, a form of Malay with simplified grammar and a very restricted vocabulary that members of many ethnic groups used to communicate in the marketplace.
The government used English, with translators employed when necessary, as in the courts.
Among the Chinese a simplified form of Hokkien served as the language of the marketplace.
The Chinese schools, which were founded in large numbers in the early years of the twentieth century and associated with the rise of Chinese nationalism, attempted to teach in Mandarin Guoyu, the use of which on such formal occasions as weddings and Chinese national holiday celebrations came to carry some prestige.
In the terminology of sociolinguistics, Singapore's language system was multilingual and diglossiac, that is, characterized by two languages or dialects, high and low, or classical and vernacular, each used in different social contexts and carrying differential prestige.
Bazaar Malay and market Hokkien were the low languages, employed in the streets and market places, and English and Mandarin were the high languages, used in education, government offices, and public celebrations.
In addition, such native tongues as pure Malay, Teochiu, Tamil, or Punjabi were used in the home and in gatherings of members of the same speech group.
In a 1972 survey asking which language people understood, Hokkien came first, at 73 percent, followed by Malay, with 57 percent.
Malay was the most important language for intergroup communication, with almost all the Indians and 45 percent of the Chinese claiming to understand it.
http://countrystudies.us/singapore/20.htm
The once flourishing literary activities in Baba Malay came to a grinding
halt and wayang peranakan and dondang sayang were in crisis. Thus, the most
important "Malay" aspect of the previous Baba identity was indeed in
decline.
On a political level, the good relations between the Babas and the Malays
also deteriorated somewhat when, during the pre-independence struggle for
Merdeka, the Malays were infuriated by secessionist Babas. To the Malays,
those Babas were "puppets" or even "pariahs" of the British Queen.
From the end of World War II, many Babas abandoned Chinese
religion and a syncretic system of beliefs, and embraced Christianity,
particularly Catholicism.
Moreover, Baba Malay and dondang sayang standards deteriorated, the sarong
kebaya was less seen in public and the art of Nyonya cuisine was at least
simplified, if not abandoned.Baba Malay as a lingua franca had been on the decline from the '20s
onwards, and after Merdeka, English became the most important lingua
franca.
In addition, a gradual and incomplete switch in mother tongue from Baba
Malay to English occurred among the Singapore Babas.
http://www.asiawind.com/pub/forum/fhakka/mhonarc/msg01319.html